492 
OCTANDRIA. DIGYN1A. Corylus. 
segment pointed at the end. Leaves oval, serrated, wrinkled. Catkins 
green, when out of flower brown. 
Hazel-nut Tree. (Irish: Coll. Welsh: ColUlwyn. Gaelic: An Cal- 
tain. E.) Woods and hedges. T. March—April.* 
* It is frequently planted in hedges and in coppices, to make charcoal for forges. The 
owners cut them down in equal portions in the rotation of sixteen years, and raise regular 
revenues out of them : often more than the rent of the land, for freeholders of 15/. or 25/. 
per ann. are known to make constantly 60/. a year from their woods. Penn. Tour. 1772. 
p. 29.—The wood is used for fishing-rods, walking-sticks, crates, hoops for barrels, &c. the 
shoots for springles to fasten down thatch. (In Surry, Kent, and other southern 
counties, where numerous flocks of sheep are kept, the Hazel alone supplies the far¬ 
mer with folding hurdles. E.) The roots are preferred where beautiful wood is required 
for inlaying or staining. It is a practice in Italy to put the chips of Hazel into 
turbid wine, to clear it, which it does in twenty four hours ; and in countries where yeast is 
scarce, the twigs of Hazel, twisted together, so as to be full of chinks, and steeped in ale 
during its fermentation, then hung up to dry, may be put into wort instead of yeast.-— 
Painters and engravers prepare coals for delineating their designs thus; they take pieces of 
Hazel about the thickness of a man’s arm, and four or five inches long, dry, and then 
cleave them into pieces about as thick as a finger. These they put into a large pot full of 
sand, and then cover the top of the pot with clay. This is exposed in a potter’s oven, or any 
other sufficient degree of heat, and, when cooled again, the sticks are found converted into 
charcoal, which sketches freely, and easily rubs out. (The kernels of the fruit have 
a mild, farinaceous, oily taste, agreeable to most palates, though in large quantities they 
appear to be difficult of digestion, and have sometimes produced alarming symptoms. The 
Nut-gathering, towards October, often proves a source of rural delight: 
“ Ye swains, now hasten to the Hazel bank. 
* * * * 
* * * * 
Ye virgins come. 
* * * The clustering nuts for you 
The lover finds amid the secret shade; 
And where they burnish on the topmost bough. 
With active vigour crushes down the tree; 
Or shakes them ripe, from the resigning husk, 
A glossy shower.” 
In the Northern portion of our Island, where the Walnut tree rarely ripens its fruit, the 
crops of Hazel-nuts are neither ample nor certain. The Filbert, ( C. maxima , fructu ob- 
longo , considered by Miller a distinct species), is an improved variety of this plant, and 
better managed in Kent than elsewhere, which Mr. Salisbury attributes to the trees being 
regularly pruned of superfluous wood. It is performed in the month of March, when the 
plants are in bloom, the only time when the fruit-bearing wood can be distinguished. Ac¬ 
cording to Evelyn, the Hazel affects barren grounds, even among quarries in particular 
spots, as Haselbury in Wilts, Haselingfield in Cambridgeshire, and Haslemere in Surry. 
Nor is this tree unconnected with superstitious practices, as for divinatory rods, (“ virgula 
divinateria ”), for the detecting and finding out of minerals. “ By whatsoever occult 
virtue,” says Evelyn, “ the forked stick discovers not only subterraneous treasure, but cri¬ 
minals guilty of murder, &c. made out so solemnly, by the attestations of magistrates, and 
divers other learned and credible persons, who have critically examined matters of fact, is 
certainly next to a miracle, and requires a strong faith.” To which we would apply the 
Hudibrastic distich, 
“ Thus he receives the most delight, 
Who least perceives the juggler’s slight.” 
And refer our readers to an ingenious essay in the Quarterly Review, No. 44. In the 
Highlands of Scotland the tree is considered of ill omen, but the finding of two nuts 
naturally conjoined highly felicitous. As an amulet, the Cno Chomhlaich is, even in the 
nineteenth century, worn about the person with much confidence. And Gay, with a 
somewhat similar allusion, thus describes an incantation of the shepherds, not wholly 
obsolete even in our time; 
